These are questions, concerning the Populist Party of America, that have been directed to me by researchers in political science. My responses to the queries are below.

Russell Cole:

What were your goals/strategies with respect to the 2008 general election (presidential/congressional/local/etc.)? To what extent were these goals accomplished?

At this stage in our development, we see ourselves mainly as advocates for specific policies and reforms. Therefore, we did not endorse any candidates; although many candidates sought our endorsement. I should mention that we had a strong working relationship with the Ron Paul Campaign organizers as well as Ron Paul, himself, who has authored a number of articles that we have published for him using the populistamerica.com website.

We refuse to endorse candidates because we feel that it would detract from our specific agenda, which consists of the democratization of American society. Therefore, since no major candidate will ever take up democratization as his or her sole advocacy, we feel obliged to not offer endorsements to politicians.

We, essentially, see ourselves as working outside of the normative grid constituting American politics proper. We want to fundamentally change the political system. Therefore, we do not want to take any steps that would lead to our assimilation into the current sociopolitical establishment. Continue reading →